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UK retail giant Marks & Spencer (M&S) has shut down even more of its operations as it continues to deal with the “cyber incident” it disclosed last week.
Last week, M&S revealed that its payment and click & collect systems were taken offline to protect its systems and customers following a cyber incident.
“Marks and Spencer Group plc (the company, or M&S) has been managing a cyber incident over the past few days,” last week’s statement said.
“As soon as we became aware of the incident, it was necessary to make some minor, temporary changes to our store operations to protect customers and the business, and we are sorry for any inconvenience experienced.”
Now, despite backlash at the systems going offline, M&S has disabled even more of its systems as part of its “proactive management” strategy.
In a post to X, M&S announced that it had paused all online sales from its website and app.
“As part of our proactive management of a cyber incident, we have made the decision to pause taking orders via our M&S.com websites and apps,” the company said.
The company added that there was still no need for customers to take any action and that its product range was still available for browsing online, and that products could be bought in store.
“Our experienced team – supported by leading cyber experts – is working extremely hard to restart online and app shopping,” it said.
However, as highlighted by CyberNews and Closed Door Security CEO William Wright, customers should be wary of phishing scams and other cyber criminal activity that could follow in the fallout.
“We don’t know if criminals have accessed any customer data, but it’s always safer to be on guard … and treat all communications with caution,” said Wright.
In a post on X, one customer said they received a scam call using card details that they had used with M&S in the past.
“Yesterday I received a NoCallerID who wanted to scam me using my name and last 4 digits of my credit card. I hung up and wasn’t scammed. However, I tried to return an online order to M&S and their staff said systems were down. Now there’s an admission of a cyber attack,” said the customer.
“It transpires the card I paid M&S with is the one the scammers used against me. The scammer wanted access to my phone and wanted me to read a 6 digit code back to him. This would have given him access to all info on my phone. I hung up and called my bank myself. Be alert!”
Yesterday I received a NoCallerID who wanted to scam me using my name and last 4 digits of my credit card. I hung up and wasn’t scammed. However, I tried to return an online order to M&S and their staff said systems were down. Now there’s an admission of a cyber attack.
— Michelle Mallin (@michelle_m74727) April 25, 2025
M&S is yet to disclose the nature of the incident, nor have any threat actors claimed responsibility for the cyber attack.
However, The Telegraph has said that the incident is indeed a ransomware attack. The threat actor was still not identified.
Following the incident, M&S suffered a £500 million UK stock market loss.
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